Doubt & Trust
by White-Rabbit914
Summary: 6 amateur shinigami friends must break the centuries-old prophesy set by their elders, or all hell will break loose literally . Friends will fight against friends, and family will fight against family in the prophesy of Pain, Betrayal, and Tragedy.
1. The Start of Summer

Doubt & Trust

(AN) Hey guys! I'm not dead! XDD I was just…in a bit of a writer's block, so I decided to work on some of my other fanfiction ideas. This particular one is about (of course) Bleach, but a bit fast forwarded into the future. This story is centered around 7 friends (OC chara's that I based on my friends and I) and how they end a horrible prophesy, and find love and friendship along the way. Yeah, it's a cheesy summary, but you get the point. Enjoy! –Millie (my new sign-off name ;D)

Chapter 1: The Start of Summer: Saiyako Ayumi

"Wait…Why are you looking at me like that? G-get away from me! N-no! Help! Help! She's gonna kill me!"

Ok, yeah, if you were me, you would think this was a murder scene. Well, you'd be half-right. I had heard Rai's girly screaming from outside the classroom and I sighed as I opened up the door.

"Ok guys. Break it up, break it up." I sighed even though it wasn't much of a fight, more like a beating. "Sen, get Kanae's legs, and Takeshi, you get her arms."

Only ten minutes before, Sora, Sen, and I were walking to school chatting peacefully. When we stepped into the classroom, guess what we found? We were witnessing Rai getting cornered into the wall by a very pissed off Kanae. Said Kanae was currently being restrained. Meanwhile, Rai was getting removed from the dent in the wall by Sen and I.

You would have never guessed that we were all best friends and had known each other since grade school, but we were. Kanae, Sen, and I had been friends since we were in diapers ('cause our parents were friends) and we met Takeshi and Rai at school. We instantly knew these two were just about the dorkiest people you'd ever meet, so they were fine by us.

Then, along came Sora. From a distance, you'd think she was just a normal 13-year old girl (who was mildly shorter than most her age), but once you got closer, you'd know she had SDD, also known as Spastic Dork Disease.

No, it isn't real. Yes, she acts like she's on crack. Continuing on, we were still busy restraining Kanae and her obvious fury against the pitiful Rai.

"Takeshi! Pull her arms up a bit more, she looks like she's about to hit the floor!" Sora called out. She and Takeshi had been carrying her 'dead-ant' style across the floor while she was giving them her famous death stares.

"Takeshi." Kanae managed to say through the paper towel gag that they had put in her mouth. "I'm not going to kill Rai. Put. Me. Down."

"Kanae, you know we can't trust you when you go on one of your rampages." I said calmly. "Now please explain why you were cornering him into the wall with your mechanical pencil and the intent to kill?"

"Well, let me put it this way: the imbecile stuck my math book into the toilet. Now tell me I didn't have every right to pound him into the wall!" Kanae muttered angrily. "You know I can get free right now if I didn't know that I'd kill him on accident." She added.

I considered this for a moment.

"Ok Tak-kun, let her go. She has every right to pound him." I said with a devious grin. "Besides, it's the last day of school; she can't hurt him _too_ badly."

This had been happening during class of course. No one in their right mind would come to school _that_ early. But everyone else was used to this; it was pretty much like a normal everyday thing now. Even the teachers decided to let us go because, 1. It was the last day of school, and 2. It was Kanae for Pete's sake! She's like a force of nature; unable to be changed. Well, technically all of us are (The girls anyways) but that's beside the point. Oh yeah! Now back to Rai getting pounded.

"Hey, stop saying that like you know she's gonna win!" Rai complained. We all looked at each other. Then we looked _down _at him.

"She's going to win." we replied, perfectly in sync.

Rai shook his head angrily.

"No way, I mean, I do take self defense classes! It's not like I'm helpless! Takeshi agrees, doesn't he?"

"'Takeshi' doesn't agree." Takeshi solemnly replied.

"I won against you once! Last class, remember?"

Takeshi sighed. "All I remember is you goading me on with the promise of a Hershey's bar, then suddenly pinning me to the ground, exclaiming that you won." He said with calm indifference. He chuckled. "But it's the thought that counts, isn't it?"

"I would know…" Kanae muttered to herself darkly.

"Now come on guys!" Sen objected. "You know Rai is sensitive!' And it's not his fault that he has self-confidence issues! And so what that we beat him in everything! At least he always gets up! I mean, he at least always crawls or stumbles home after Kanae beats him up instead of dying like a normal person should have." She, unlike pretty much everybody else, didn't know that Rai had a massive crush on her, and each word crushed him like a boulder.

"Er…Sen. I think you should stop before Rai drowns in his despair." Sora said to the confused girl.

While Sen was talking, Kanae had managed to dangle Rai out of the window by his ankles (while bashing him against the wall). Takeshi had for some reason, found a fishing pole, and it was attached to Rai's shirt in case he fell.

And who are we exactly? And who am I? I'm Saiyako Ayumi (Ayu for short), middle school student, 13 years old, 5'4", and exorcist in training. What does that mean? Even I don't know sometimes. All I know is that I've been able to see ghosts ever since I was a little kid. And the 'in training' part? Well, that's just a fancy term for the fact that my brother Kai can see them too, and he's teaching me how to send them to 'a better place' as he calls it.

Honestly, I don't know what to do, even if he tells me all I have to do is grab a stick and whack them over the head with it (although I have a feeling that he didn't word it like this). Of course, I've never actually done this before. I mean, how would you feel if you died and someone was whacking you over the head with a stick?

As for my friends, of course I told them! They love me the way I am. _Not._ I haven't told a single soul about this 'gift' because of the fact that they're either going to a) look at you funny, then hit you in the shoulder and think it's all a joke or b) send you to the loony bin. Of course, this is all told from experience. But enough about me, class is finally over!

I sighed in relief as I heard the bell ring signaling the end of first hour.

"Come on you dorks, it's time for our next class." I said with my hands on my hips. Kanae immediately dropped him and Takeshi reeled in a (barely conscious) Rai back up with his head covered in bumps and bruises.

The rest of the day went by normally (if you call Kanae randomly beating Rai up at various parts of the day normal. Which we do.) And finally the last bell of the day rang. Everybody cheered, with the exception of me. I sighed, and followed the rest of the class out of the door.

The nightmares of my new 'job' danced through my head as I picked up my school bag. This consisted of hitting ghosts over the head with my brother as far as I could tell. I had not-so-happily nicknamed this 'Whack-a-Ghost', for Kai called this routine 'whacking ghosts'. This didn't create a pleasant image in my head. Yeah, I loved my brother and I sometimes respected him, but being able to see ghosts (especially pervy ones) was something I wished I hadn't inherited from him. As far as I could tell, we were the only ones in the family, or maybe even the world, who had this ability, and it hadn't provided me with tons of friends back when I was young, innocent, and stupid enough to think that people would believe me when I told them about it. This was pretty much why I hadn't told any of my friends. But, as everything tends to do, this would bite me back in the butt later on.

--

My friends and I decided to celebrate finally getting out of school by going to our hangout, an abandoned old playground in the middle of the woods. It used to be part of the park a couple years back, but suddenly a newer, better, park was built downtown, and everybody flocked to that one instead. We had stumbled across it last year, and it had unofficially become our official hangout. We brought along some snacks and music and were just getting into the makings of a good party when disaster struck.

You know how some things can change in a matter of three seconds? Well, 1, 2, 3, everything changed. And I mean _changed_. The first thing that tipped us off was the huge gaping _hole_ in the sky. Yeah, that's normal. Totally normal. The second not-so-subtle hint was the huge ripple of sheer power. Only later would I learn the actual term for it. Reiatsu. Just then, Rai inhaled sharply and the same power doubled, spiking around him like the wind had decided the he made a good focal point for a tornado. We were all dumbstruck, in a trance-like state (or so I thought at the time. Like most things, this would turn out to be wrong). You know how things always happen in threes? Yeah well, the third was a bit of a whopper for us.

It came in the wonderful package of a massive, grotesque monster suddenly appearing in front of us along with a kid who looked about our age. I heard Kanae repeat the not-so-school-appropriate word again and suddenly, it felt like something had snapped inside of me.

I felt… stronger somehow. I also felt like there was a thick blanket of unknown power stifling my lungs, not allowing me to breathe or speak. My knees collapsed, and I saw that I wasn't the only one. Rai collapsed first, even though later he would deny this. Only Kanae was left standing, and the look on her face would have made me cringe if I could move.

There was pain, fear, and strangely, some familiarity. She looked at the boy who was now either bravely or stupidly fighting the thing. Then, when I thought I couldn't handle the pressure anymore, the blanket lifted, and I looked up.

If I wasn't freaking out already, I would have noticed that I had somehow changed into a black hakama (complete with a sword and hilt) with a strange chain attached to the middle of my chest. If I had followed the chain, I would have seen that it led to _my body which was lying face down on the ground!_

_--_

(AN) I hope you liked it! I'm co-authoring this with my friend Megan (who I based Kanae after) and I'll see if I can get her to make an account on so she can razzle-dazzle you guys with her smartical words and stuffies in her stories. I mean, she _did_ win best female author in fifth grade! LOL XDDD No, seriously, she's awesome, so when she posts some of her works (hopefully) you guys can read them and cheer her on! Millie, out!

P.S. Please comment!


	2. Hollow Attack!

Doubt & Trust

(AN) Megan and I splurged one night to right two chapters in a row! So you guys better enjoy it! LOL jk XDD–Millie

Chapter 2: Hollow Attack! Sakimiya Minami

I never asked for freakish shinigami powers, or my crappy adopted parents. They were the ones who threw a wrench into my perfectly normal life living with my grandma. And I hated their guts for doing that. But, if it weren't for them, grandma wouldn't be alive right now, and I wouldn't have any clue of who I was and who I owed my life to, now would I?

It all started with me living as an orphan with my Grandma. Small house, small town, small everything. It was a plain life, but I was happy. Content. The happy life ended the day I turned seven. It had been a great day. Well, except for the first part. I was experimenting with my powers in the forest where I thought I wouldn't be able to damage anything. How stupid and wrong I was. I mean, my zampakuto's power is _fire_ (although I hadn't released it at the time) and here I was playing with little fireballs _in the forest!_ Needless to say, I set the woods on fire. Ever since then, I've been a tree-hugger. You would be too if you saw those innocent trees being destroyed right before your eyes! I heard a scream, and I immediately ran towards the voice. Being the stupid little kid I was, I didn't notice that the fire didn't, no, _couldn't_ hurt me.

Someone once told me that it was like a mermaid being unable to drown. Yeah, 'cause a guy's greatest dream is to be compared to a mermaid.

Anyways, when I got to a clearing, I saw a girl that was my age (which wasn't that old back then) with two twin pigtails. I'm not sure how, or why, but I have a feeling I grabbed her and just ran, screaming my head off like a girl. Not that I have anything against them. It's the opposite actually.

After I 'heroically' saved her, we spent the rest of the day finding our way back to the village and hanging out along the way. Not to be cheesy, but I guess you could say she was my first love. And the proof I needed to know that the opposite gender were a) not a plague that would wipe out all civilization and their pets b) weren't fat old ladies who tried to pinch your cheek. Before, I thought they were icky and had cooties. How wrong I was.

I don't remember her face well, but I do remember her eyes. They were bright green. You had to notice them when you saw her; you couldn't possibly have seen the color before. I loved the way they twinkled when she laughed (and I made sure to make that often) and before I knew it, the day was over. Like I said, she was my first love, first girl friend, first everything to me.

The others weren't nearly as good.

The day ended. The moon had been a thin crescent that night. She was only there to vacation, so she left early the next day. I never saw her again after that.

Her name was Ai. Or at least, something like that. The details weren't important, only my feelings. I know, you're probably thinking that it was only 'puppy love' and children's feelings shouldn't matter. They get over it. They can't possibly know and see enough to understand. Well, I've probably seen more when I was a seven year old kid, than you would have ever seen in your life.

I had a pretty awful childhood, on account of my parents dying, and then being passed from relative to relative. I was finally happy when I turned 5 because my grandmother took me away and I had two years of bliss. But the six years after my adoption and grandma's sickness, were like no other. The awful pit of darkness that I was punished with by my parents was by far one of the worst memories of my life. I guess that's just what you would call a dedicated parent huh? Well, I wouldn't know because I've never had real, loving, parents. Who am I? My name is Sakimiya Minami. However, that's only the name of my adopted parents, so I don't know my real name.

My grandmother had only told me that my parents had named me Minami. She would tell me stories about my parents and what they did when they were alive, instead of the usual fairy tales that normal kids are told before bed. It's not like you can call me exactly normal though.

Anyways, when I lived with my adoptive parents, instead of fairy tales, they told me about ghosts, hollows, and the job of shinigamis', which required the spiritual power that I had possessed since I was a little kid.

I was pushed to the brink of insanity. Until I was 'worthy of a name', I had no name. Every day I was given a goal. The same one, every day. Perfection. A straight, narrow, tightrope with no room for mistakes or relaxation was what I now balanced on. I fell. A lot. My punishment wasn't so much as punishment as a daily routine. My reward for success was nothing, but being spared punishment. Running away was no option. An elite bodyguard, threats on the money sustaining my grandmother's life, and a personal task force were more than enough to keep me there.

I wasn't alone. If I had been, I would be in the mental hospital right now. My crappy excuse for parents had a daughter. Or a son. Or both. Secrecy was something I got used to, and information was valuable. Rumors of the family spread through the servants. Some said they had a daughter they pretended was a son, or vice versa. Others said they had a daughter and a son. And some said they had a daughter or son who they pretended were two different siblings. Either way, when they punished me, they put me in his/her room/dungeon. Short, cropped, hair and pale skin were all I could make of him or her. Ironically, I had always thought of s/he as a girl. Don't get me wrong, it's not like she was a girly-girl or anything, it's just that if she wasn't, I would have been living with a gay. That wasn't the most pleasing thought. Therefore, I thought of her as a she. Sometimes I switched pronouns when she was especially masculine, well, in my head, 'cause I never really talked to her much. The room was dark at all times. No light whatsoever. We were strictly fellow students and prisoners.

That wasn't to say we liked each other. The opposite, actually. We might be stepsiblings, but we hated each other. In public, we were best friends, whether he or she was in girl form or guy form. During training, we were rivals who hated each other and wanted nothing more than for the other to fail. Neither of us was called by names. We hardly even talked. We were encouraged to hate each other.

Although, a few months back, I went through my harshest 'evaluation' yet. We were constantly being tested, in order to keep our parents knowledgeable of our abilities. For some reason, my power was extremely difficult to control that day, it was kind of like a PMSing girl if you know what I mean. Oh god. Please don't tell me my sword is a girl.

Anyways, we were always evaluated together, and my reiatsu just…kind of kept on blowing up. Literally. It was especially bad during our kidou examination. I accidently pushed my power too far, and ended up setting the whole practice arena on fire.

When I was sent back to the light-deprived room with no dinner as a punishment, I noticed that s/he wasn't there. I was curious about where my training 'buddy' had gone, so I stayed up until s/he came back. S/he never did. I probably fell asleep, because in the morning s/he was across the room. Covered in bandages, and I thought I could even see a sling. I winced.

It had to have been from the explosion. No wonder. S/he had been the closest person to me during the test, S/he had gotten the full blast. Likely s/he would spend months struggling through pain during training because of my PMSing sword. (Although, back then, all I knew was that PMSing was when my "mother" got moody and blew things up.) I had no idea what to do.

I hadn't apologized to anyone since I was seven, but I wanted to make things right. Especially since s/he could kick my a at hand-to-hand and I was pretty sure that s/he was someone to hold a grudge. So, I did number three on my stupidest things I've ever done list: I tried to apologize.

"Uh…hey, um….Sorry about yesterday….since, like now you're injured and all that…." I mumbled. I half-hoped she hadn't heard me by the time I'd choked out the words. Oh, how I regretted those words now. She raised her head.

"Shut up, you selfish, idiotic, imbecile. Do you really think you're apologizing for your actions that way? All you're doing is trying to clear your own conscience by saying 'sorry'." She snapped. "If you really wanted to make up for it, why don't you try training harder so that no one gets hurt anymore? All it proves is that you're taking the easy way out. I don't need your false sympathy. We are rivals in every way, and patronizing me is stupid, childish, thing to do. Treat me as your equal rival, otherwise you will end up underestimating me. Lastly, most of these burns aren't from you."

It felt like I was in a hailstorm. All the words bruised my ego. They hurt like crap, and even more so because they were true. She was right. I was only helping myself, it's not like words would make all of her injuries disappear. It was about this time when I started realizing she was a girl. She had to be, with the way she knew how to kick me where it hurt (not literally, although she probably had a lot of reasons to).

"How am I supposed to treat you as 'my equal' when I don't even know what your name is, or even your _gender_!" I replied. I felt like I needed to stand up for myself a little if no one else was going to. Besides, it was a good time to finally solve the 'mystery' of his/her gender.

S/he stiffened at the word gender. Then, she stood up and looked at me with an expression I hadn't seen on her face before. Two words. Pissed off. Although, there was a trace of something else in there too. Worry perhaps?

"Watch your mouth. If they had heard you, it would have meant a beating. You are far too curious for your own good. Curiosity did kill the cat. You know the rules, and if you don't you won't live long. I do not exist. It does not matter whether I am female or male. Well, not currently. I am only a convenient accident, or tool. Whichever you prefer."

All I could think of to respond with was, "Why don't you use contractions? I mean, it's always like, 'I am' or 'was not' or something else freakishly formal!"

She seemed to be worried about my mental health.

"Contractions were made by lazy people who could not stand to stretch their tongue farther than coarse language." She deadpanned.

"Hey, are you calling me lazy?! And act like a kid! You're, like, my age! How old are you? Ten? 11?"

"I am around twelve years old. I will be thirteen in a few months."

"I turned 13 three months ago! Ha!"

"Age does not matter. You should be ashamed that you cannot beat me in kidou or hand-to-hand."

"I can make fireballs! That counts as kidou! Beat that!" I replied triumphantly. "Besides, how can I catch you if you're so small and running everywhere like a crazy person?!"

"Maybe you need a lymphatic suction. Then perhaps you shall be able to catch me."

Needless to say, we established a brother-sister-like relationship. Although when we talked it usually ended up in an argument, either about me so-called stupidity or her formality. But a few weeks later, she didn't come back into the room, and I never saw her again. I heard rumors that she had tried to escape. The guards had caught up to her, but she knocked them out. Then, her parents went after her. After bringing her back, they decided they wouldn't sanction the shame of having a runaway daughter, much less a daughter no one knew had existed. They disowned her, and told the public they had sent their daughter to Karakura for training. Soon after I heard the rumors, they sent me on her tail. They didn't know that we had been friends, and wanted to make sure she would keep her mouth shut about the shinigami crap.

Two birds with one stone. I got firsthand experiences of my shinigami duties, and their daughter kept her mouth shut. Not only that, they had managed to get rid of her. I was sent to wipe her memories and seal her powers. Permanently. Dun dun dun!

Except for the fact that I stupid hollow attacked me on my way to my caretakers house (it's Urahari or something like that…sounds like a type of mushroom…) which I had absolutely no experience against!

This fast forwards us to the present. For some reason, I noticed that a group of humans were there.

"Let's see… 1, 2, 3, 4, shit!"

I had been counting the number of people there (with a fair amount of cute girls thrown in there) and had gotten my stomach sliced open, sending me straight into one of the girls. All I thought of was, "Too small." She was at my chin. Probably around five feet, give or take an inch or two. Although the guy next to her was even shorter, and whoa! He had a huge reiatsu. Very spiky. My reiatsu was usually compressed so that I could do better when I actually had access to it. Unfortunately, the kido had miscalculated. My reiatsu had grown, by huge amounts, and I still had the control necessary for a seven year old. For which I can say, thanks. Thanks a lot, puberty. Then I remembered that I was still on top of a girl. Then I realized that she wasn't moving. Oh, jeez.

"I'm so so so so sorry!" I exclaimed as I jumped off. Then, I finally noticed the fact that all of them were in full shinigami robes with _a sword _and humongous reiatsu. Not to mention the fact that their bodies were lying on the ground. Oh, and the fact that there was a reiatsu-hungry hollow nearby.

While I was in this state of momentary stupidity, I was swiped across the chest by the hollow, and fell back with all my breath knocked out of me. Add lots of blood to that, and you have yourself a wonderful image! The hollow roared, and charged again. This time it headed for me. I wished I had gotten to see Grandma again. I waited. And waited. Nothing hit me. I opened my eyes…

--

(AN) I hope you enjoyed that one too! Ok, in case you guys are confused, i'm gonna give you guys some background info. I'm Saiyako Ayumi, Megan is Sakimiya Kanae, Sen is my friend Catherine, Sora is my friend Rita, Rai is my friend Josh, and Takeshi is my friend Vikas. Minami is an OOC chara that i made up for this story, but i still think he's cool! XDD Maybe i'll use him in another story too... (btw, he's a bit of a playboy if you haven't noticed already XDD) -Millie


	3. Ravings of a Lunatic

Trust

Doubt & Trust

AN I/We're back! Me and Me- cough cough I mean, Megan and _I _have arrived with another chapter! This time, Meggy wrote most of it while I edited it. I still don't get why she won't make a fanfiction account, but I hope you guys can tell our writing styles apart. Maybe someday I'll let you guys guess…Oh well! Enjoy Chapter 3, Ravings of a Lunatic (or somebody really close to it): Saiyako Ayumi. -Millie

--

Dang. How had he found me? Stupid Uncle Tanuki. Yes, of course I will have a normal life. Shinigami free, Minami free, and parent free. Wishful thinking. My battle instincts kicked in. I had been trained in this for twelve years. My eyes darted around. Minami injured, Sen in shock, and Rai choking under his own reiatsu. I seized Ayu's shoulder.

"Do you trust me?!" I demanded. Ayu looked at me as though I had asked her to have children.

"What are you talking about, Kanae?"

"Just do you trust me?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

"Then get in front of the monster."

"WHAT?! Are you insane?"

I didn't have time for this. I flung her into its path, and darted to Minami, hefting him like a sack over my shoulder. Bloodstained, I hesitated in front of Rai. Doing this would mean going into the line of fire. The Sakimiya's would have confirmation on my location once I used kidou. Rai gasped. Sen shook him, screaming for him to wake up. I could see her crying. I sighed.

I could not deny it. My happiness and peace was not worth theirs. I had already been through too much. It was too late for me to have a good ending. They had a chance. I shoved Sen aside. Her tearstreaked face was filled with shock as I saw her fall. Oh, well, they would hate me anyways.

"Seal Release Hakudo #47!"

Hit the soul sleep. Focus on the chain. Make sure not to break it. Draw out the tainted reiatsu. Forcibly seal the soul. Then heal. These thoughts ran through my head as I revived Rai. Idiot. He could not even seal his reiatsu yet. It was a miracle that he was still alive by the time I had gotten to him.

--

I stared at the monster in horror. I am _so_ not gonna find a stick big enough to whack this guy over the head! I must be dreaming. Of course I'm dreaming! Suddenly, the monster was roaring at me. I felt spittle fly across my cheeks and I wiped them away in disgust.

"Gross." I muttered under my breath. I heard Kanae screaming at me.

"What do you want now? You're about to make me die! I _hate___dying in my dreams!" I replied angrily to her. "It makes me feel all depressed in the morning!"

"Draw your darn sword already!" She screamed at me, although she used a much worse word. I noticed her hands were surrounded in some weird, green glow, and she had them pointed at Rai's chest. But wait, wasn't his body next to the slide? Ok, I won't think about it right now. This is just one freakishly vivid dream. Tomorrow I'll wake up and laugh it off with my friends…right?

But I don't want to die, not even in my dreams. Not if I can help it. Sword? Check. Hakama? Check. Now, all that's left to do is…

"Draw the sword, and slice through the mask!" Kanae instructed me. It kind of felt like when she was teaching Sora math. _Incomprehensible._ But still, I complied and drew my sword. Surprisingly, it felt…familiar. Like, I was holding my brothers hand. I felt safe, and I knew what to do. Strike. Guard. Defend.

I ran towards the thing, jumped high into the air, and brought my sword slicing through its skull like I had done this a million times before. The monster hadn't been expecting me. I didn't know how I knew, but it was focusing on the person with the highest power. And it didn't know what to do because there were a lot of tasty souls around.

It crashed to the ground and disintegrated. For a second, I flushed in my success, like I had won a huge prize. As I collapsed to the ground, my only thought was, I hope that everyone's alright. Even that random strange guy.

Here we were a group of teenagers, with Rai and that random guy unconscious, Takeshi and Sen trying to help Kanae, and me lying on the ground only semi-conscious. Yeah, not suspicious looking at all. Not to mention the fact that while the thing was attacking us, it started to rain. Yeah, so we're a bunch of bloodstained, water soaked kids in an old abandoned park. Just great. I still hope this is only a dream.

I noticed Kanae walking towards me and lift me up into a sitting position.

"Binding Hakudo 56." Kanae put her palm onto my forehead, and then straightened up. Then she disappeared.

"Kanae!" I yelled after her. "That is _so_ not nice! You'd _better come back here right now!_" Suddenly, my feet got up and started walking in some random direction as if it was being guided by something. My friends looked up in surprise and started to try and stop me. No need to say that they couldn't.

"Hey! What the heck is going on here?" I said, slightly panicking as I involuntarily punched Takeshi in the face when he tried to stop me. He was carrying the random guy. Oddly, his wounds didn't seem as bad as they did a while ago (the random guy I mean).

"We should follow her and see where she'll lead us." Takeshi said calmly after I apologized profusely for punching him. Good ol' Tak-kun. When Kanae isn't here, he becomes the voice of reason.

They rest of them agreed and followed me. Especially after they saw the huge bruise on his cheek. We couldn't get back into our bodies because a) we didn't even know what the heck we were doing _out _of our bodies and b) we didn't know how to get back in even if we tried.

We were sort of like ghosts. Not the haunting part, the walking-through-walls part was totally true though. Apparently my feet were carrying me in a straight path, and it didn't care if I went through trees or houses. It was especially awkward that my friends were following me and we happened to walk through a bathroom…where a lady was taking a shower... Of course, we made Rai and Takeshi cover their eyes.

We finally arrived at a tiny, little shop called the Urahara Shoten. My feet finally were back under my control, and I hurriedly ran up to the door and knocked on it.

"Kanae had better not be screwing with us." I heard Rai mumble darkly under his breath.

"Well, you almost died a little while ago, and you were saved by her, so have some faith in Kanae, ok?" Sen said, coming to Kanae's defense. "Besides, how can that happen to you, and you're suddenly half-swearing a couple minutes later? I would be freaking out right now!"

Rai shrugged as Takeshi replied, "I think we should trust Ayumi's feet. After all, she _did_ just slay a humongous monster in front of our eyes, so it's probably smart to listen to her."

The door slid open. A man with blond hair, sandals, a black robe, and a pinstriped hat answered the door.

"O-ha-yo! What can I get you people?" he fanned himself.

We all winced. It was evening. None of us dared to correct him, though. He was a little too optimistic considering we were all covered in dirt, blood, and water.

"I don't recognize you from any of the squads. So, what service can I do you youngsters so late at night?" he continued to fan himself cheerfully.

_You just said it was morning… _We all thought.

"Just let us rest up in your shop while we get out of rain, ok?" I snapped at him. After all that had happened to me tonight, I didn't have the patience to play games with some strange guy.

"Well, I don't let just anyone in my shop for free. You either have money and a lot of it I might add, are a shinigami, or you were sent by one of my less known friends!" he ended his speech by snapping his fan shut.

"So, do you have money?"

"Well, no, but-"

"I can see you're a shinigami, but can you tell me what squad you're from? I don't like harboring rogues, I have to keep it from Soul Society, so I don't take them in anymore."

"Sorry, I don't really know what you're say-"

"Then, were you sent by a friend?" he said it like there was a question underneath the question. I squinted through the rain at him. What was he after?

"Well, yeah. You might not know her though." I decided to go with my gut and trust that Kanae wasn't "screwing us" like Rai so aptly put it.

The guy shrugged.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I know a lot of people. Most of the time they're important. Generally, I do remember more women, because hell doesn't have a torture worse than an angry woman, but then again, there are a lot of people in this world. So you may as well give her name a try." He suggested.

I chewed my lip. "Does the name 'Izayoi Kanae' mean anything to you?"

The man's face seemed to smooth out automatically, like it was a habit of his. I couldn't get any expression out of it, and I guessed that he was clearing his face on purpose.

"Ahh. Well, that does ring a bell with me. Yes, I do know your friend, to put it in your perspective. You are rather fortunate, giving her name changes everything. Now, you are a friend of a friend, and I must treat you as one. Although, I'll have to verify that S-Izayoi-san did send you. You wouldn't have evidence, now would you? I see she isn't with you."

I glanced around at my friends. They all shrugged. I was the one with the feet.

"I don't know how, but my feet led me here, mister"

He nodded sagely.

"Mind if I touch you?" he suddenly asked. I edged away from him.

"Ahh, you misread my intentions. You see, occasionally, I deal with paranoid shinigami who do not like to be touched, and I find that it's preferable to scare normal shinigami than be chased with the released sword of an abnormal shinigami. I see, however that you are the normal kind. In which case….."

Suddenly, he finger was on my forehead. I hadn't even seen him move. He had his eyes closed, and he was nodding.

"Ahh. Binding Hakudo, eh? The girl should meet Tessai, it might convince her to focus more on kidou, and less on slicing and dicing." He muttered something else under his breath that sounded faintly like "unladylike" and "unnecessarily impolite".

He opened his eyes and smiled.

"I've forgotten my manners. I am Urahara Kisuke, and welcome to my humble shop." He opened the door and walked into the shop.

After we exchanged glances, all we could really do was follow him. It was a shop, with rows of strange products. There were things I'd never even heard of before! There was another sliding door at the back of the shop, which opened to reveal a small kitchen with a traditional table meant for kneeling, with tatami mats. "Tessai! We have guests!" Urahara called out. A huge man with an equally large apron appeared immediately.

"Where should I put them, Urahara-san? Is it Ishida-kun or Sado-kun? Orihime-san is still in Seireitei." He boomed. The man was easily six feet, and seeing him next to Rai was kind of funny. Rai, who still hadn't even gotten to five feet yet, looked really fragile compared to Tessai. Urahara scratched his head.

"We could put them into the rooms we usually give those guys. Yeah, they'd fit. Hope you three don't mind rooming together." He added to Tak-kun and Rai.

They didn't seem too happy with that, but a room was a room, no matter if you had to share it with someone else. Takeshi grumbled a little under his breath, though. He tried to put up a "cool" front like in his manga, but he was a bit too fun-loving to keep up the unfazed face. The other guy was still on his shoulder when he suddenly woke up. He coughed, and I could see he was still out of it.

"Don't…Stop it. Stop screwing around with my life." He muttered, barely there. I was starting to think that this guy belonged in the asylum. Urahara raised his eyebrows.

"You seem to have found my new tenant. How coincidental."

"No offense, but who would be desperate enough to pay to live in this dump?" Sora muttered somewhere behind me. Urahara didn't look offended.

"Well, not desperate. Wealthy. It isn't my shop that's appealing, you know. It's actually me and this area. I haven't taken on a student for nearly ten years, and I'm always in demand. I only agreed to let this young man board here; however, I think his parents are probably hoping for me to take him on as a student." He shrugged.

"Why would you board him if you don't want a student?" Sen frowned. Urahara grinned cheerfully.

"Like I said, _wealth_. I am, after all, only a poor merchant! I must seize opportunity when it comes so willingly to me. Not only that, his parents are influential. Former members of the Zero Division, otherwise known as the royal guard." Urahara explained. "They've made quite a name for themselves ever since they became shinigami, and their business is legendary. Even humans know about it. So refusing such a generous offer is very insulting, not to mention offending the family is akin to suicide. I really hate going on the run, it's very annoying."

Rai took up the initiative.

"So they paid you to board him." Rai twitched. Urahara sighed.

"A little slow on the uptake, aren't you?" Urahara observed. He gestured to Takeshi's load.

"In any case, I might as well introduce you to one of the shinigami who just most likely ruined your lives, or what's left of them. Everyone, this is Sakimiya Minami."

Urahara sat down at the small table and motioned for us to do the same.

"Now then, we have much to discuss. There are few options before you now, each of them equally painful and exhausting. If you're lucky, you choose one that doesn't end in a bloody death. If not, you may end up being driven insane, tortured beyond reason, or killed in a painful manner. Some of you will probably die." He steepled his fingers, and there was no sign of a falsehood in his eyes.

The door to one of the rooms opened, and two people stepped out. Although they wore the same hakama, and they each carried swords, the difference was like comparing a mouse to a dragon. Urahara smiled.

"Ah, I see you two have arrived. Sit down, Kuchiki-san. Kurosaki-kun, be a man and leave a seat for the ladies. Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Kuchiki Rukia and Kurosaki Ichigo."

--

AN Hi everyone on Fanfiction. I'm Megan aka "Kanae" in the story. The co-author (I hope you guys remember Millie's reference to me) of Doubt & Trust. Ask any questions you might have on the reviews, which, sadly, is pretty blank right now. A hint for the story: Note every observation the characters in the story make, and you'll be able to pick out foreshadowing.  
--

Yay! I got Meggy to write something for ya guys! I'm really happy right now! Haha XDD So yeah, that was Meg, and she's the other half of our writing fiesta! Enjoy, and please review! –Millie (again)


	4. Torn and Worn

Doubt & Trust

[AN] Here's chapter 4 for you guys! Sorry it took a while, things where a little hectic over here. Well, technically, it always is, so it's not much of an excuse, huh? Oh well, enjoy Doubt & Trust Chapter 4: Worn and Torn: Takeshi

--

Rukia sat down, and the one named Ichigo stayed where he was. His bright orange hair hurt my eyes when I looked at it. Aside from being nearly six feet tall, his shocking appearance included a huge sword on his back wrapped in white cloth and his own human body. Rukia was more subtle. She was small and seemed delicate at first glance, but I knew there was more to her than meets the eye because of the confident way she carried herself and the sparkle of mischief in her violet eyes accompanied with a short curtain of ebony hair.

I also noticed when she placed her hands on the table, her seemingly ladylike hands were calloused and worn, and even had a scar, right down the center of her palm, as though she had grabbed a blade that had been too fast for her to dodge. From behind them, a black cat jumped onto the edge of the table.

As we all sat down, Urahara's eyes glinted before he said, "So, we may as well get to it. Your options. You do have quite a few. However, it's impossible to discuss them while you are all still in the dark. Therefore, we will begin with shinigami. You have all been transformed into shinigami." He leaned back and crossed his arms, sighing.

None of us said anything.

"Shinigami have three jobs. Firstly, shinigami reap hollows. Hollows are souls who did not go to Soul Society after their death, and became monsters. By killing these various hollows such as the one you just faced, you send them to Soul Society. There are also arrancar, a hollow who has gained shinigami powers, however, these arrancar haven't been seen for a while now.

"Secondly, shinigami send souls to Soul Society. Souls who have enough reiatsu, that is, the power you felt in the park, become shinigami themselves also. You all have become shinigami because you already had too much reiatsu, and the hollow attack unsealed it all at once. Your own reiatsus resonated in response to Sakimiya-san's energy." We all took a moment to sneak a look at the still unconscious teenager who, as we all just have discovered, was the reason for our current situation.

"Now then, we can still do a few things about this. Firstly, you can choose to have your powers sealed again, if possible. However, it will result in a memory wipe if your powers are sealed. The shinigami may even choose to delete the memories you have of your friends, because you may all be able to influence each other into regaining your powers if you continue to remain together." Urahara paused for our reaction. Sen looked uncomfortable, Rai and Takeshi seemed to feel similarly, and Sora looked conflicted. I understood his reasoning, but I was still bewildered. These were people I'd known for a long time. I didn't want to risk our friendship, not for anything. But…the way Urahara said it, it seemed like this would be the easiest option for us. Would it be better to be together to face hardships, or to be apart and face smaller hardships? I couldn't answer the question. Rukia cleared her throat and began to speak as well.

"Another option is for you all to become shinigami's. Do not take this lightly. Should you agree, you will leave Karakura for a time to go to a special Shinigami Academy for people such as you, who have gained shinigami powers through irregular means and are inexperienced. The Academy was started after the Winter War left us with a shortage of shinigami, so we began to recruit among Rukongai and the human world. After leaving the Academy, you may choose several futures. You could join Ichigo and the rest of us in becoming substitute shinigami's, that is, you could live a normal life while continuing the duties of a shinigami, or you could choose to leave behind your life and join the Gotei Thirteen. There are many options ahead of you." Rukia sat with her hands in her lap and her feet tucked neatly under her. I felt slightly disheveled compared to her. We were still soaked and covered in blood, but she didn't seem to mind our appearance. None of them did. Urahara nodded.

"The life of a shinigami is hard and full of conflicts. However, you will keep your friends with you to persevere through the years; versus living a normal life without them, should you decide to seal your powers and sword. There is a third choice. If you don't wish to walk a bloody path or give up part of your soul and your friends, you can all choose to die together. It would be a painless death, and it would save you much trouble. You would go to Soul Society, and become a shinigami if you so wished, but you would forget your life and go separate ways." Urahara finished. I noticed that the man with bright orange hair had stood up while he was talking, and turned to face away from us.

I looked to my friends. I could not, would not give them up. I was horrified just thinking about it. So, option one was out. I didn't care if I lived a normal life. I had been seeing ghosts' all my life, being abnormal wasn't hard. And I couldn't die. Not yet. I still hadn't graduated middle school, or gone to high school, or met a nice guy. I hadn't gotten to stay with my family long enough, or flown an airplane. I wanted to do all of those things. No, dying was not an option, no matter if we would all die together, we would still forget our past lives and go separate ways. I couldn't do that. So the only path left was…

- -

Shinigamis. Hollows. Memory wipes. Death. What was going on? I didn't want to leave my friends. Rai, Takeshi, Ayumi, Sora, Kanae! No way! I was nervous, though. Killing Hollows? Academy? I hated normal schoolwork! Not only that, while killing monsters might be awesome when you were reading about it in a shojo manga, actually doing it and getting hurt seemed a lot more…well, real. And to be perfectly honest, the monsters were creepy. They drooled, and they had random holes punched everywhere! I shivered. Not only that, what about my friends? What if they died? Could you die a second time? Would they just…disappear like I thought the dead were supposed to? It was a relief, no matter how small and superficial, to discover you didn't disappear when you died, even if you lost your memories of when you were alive.

I glanced at Rai, Takeshi, Ayumi, and Sora. Where was Kanae at such an important time? And what were they thinking about? Would Rai think of the day his home was hit by a storm and sent his parents to the hospital, leaving him in the house unconscious but fine? Would Sora think of her dead mother and father, who could be in Soul Society? And what about Takeshi and Ayumi? Ayu seemed to be debating with herself. I knew the look on her face when she did that.

I bit my nails. I had yet to admit something else. Some years ago, I had begun to see ghosts. Now I knew where they came from and why they sometimes disappeared. What would I do with that information? When I was a little kid, I thought of my life as a pattern. I would go through hard stuff and I'd meet a nice guy, and get a happily ever after, like Cinderella, or Rapunzel. Now the pattern had unraveled, starting from the first ghost I saw.

So what now? What kind of strange powers would start living inside of my "soul"?

"So, if we did become shinigami or whatever, what powers would we get?" I blurted out. Good. I didn't sound stupid, like I thought I would. Urahara nodded.

"There are four different branches of shinigami power. So, we will all explain the four branches. They are hand-to-hand combat, footwork, kidou, and swordsmanship. You would become very strong, so hand-to-hand and swordsmanship would become easy." He explained. He glanced at the black cat on the table and nodded. Suddenly, it poofed into smoke. Then we saw it was a woman. A nude woman. We all covered our eyes. I heard her curse.

"Damn, where'd you put my clothes? Jeez, why are they all so shocked? What's wrong with being naked? The majority of the things on this planet are." The voice was distinctly feminine. Finally, I dared to peek through my fingers and saw she was in a form-fitting orange outfit, clashing with her deep purple hair. We saw that Takeshi and Rai had passed out, courtesy of nosebleeds. I scowled as I tried to remind myself that they were only teenage boys. It didn't help much.

The cat-woman continued as though nothing had happened.

"Yeah, so, hand-to-hand. My favorite kind of combat, along with footwork. Anyways, hand-to-hand is a skill you have to learn. Doesn't matter if you can swing a sword, if you don't know how to go toe-to-toe and you meet someone who can do hand-to-hand, you're a deader than dead. Obviously, you wouldn't stand a chance against a true master, but it's better than nothing at all. It's one of the classes you would take at the Academy." The woman gave a pointed glance at Rukia and Ichigo. Rukia smiled and shook her head, while Ichigo snorted.

"I told you before; I'm not interested in hand-to-hand crap, Yoruichi." He deadpanned. Yoruichi rolled her eyes.

"Who said I was asking? I might take on Rukia if she begged, but I wouldn't teach you if you crawled on you hands and knees. You should learn, though, considering how Soifon had you when you fought her. She was going easy on you, too. You'd be dead if she had gone at you full force." Yoruichi flicked her long hair out of the way. Ichigo grunted, and made a noncommittal jerk in Urahara's direction. Yoruichi's eyes sparkled.

"Ah, found another teacher? I thought you said you weren't interested in 'hand to hand crap'." She grinned wickedly. Rukia cleared her throat loudly, and Yoruichi sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. So, if one of you brats show an aptitude for hand to hand, you can be sure I'll find you. Taking on students is tedious, but sometimes I'll find a true genius, in which case teaching can be incredibly rewarding." She commented.

"Alright, another branch of shinigami skills is footwork. Footwork is how you move, and speed is a part of it. You may be able to fight, but can you get from one point to another in the least amount of time possible? You'll learn that in the Academy, too. So, again, my earlier offer about showing aptitude for it still stands." She flashed a grin. I raised my hand.

"This isn't a school. So, what do we need to know this for?" I asked.

"We haven't decided to be shinigami yet." I protested. She burst out laughing.

"Ah, naïveté, I've missed talking to someone so idealistic. You never had a choice."

We all watched in horror filled awe as the adults of the room exchanged mysterious grins. The guy in the striped hat then stood up and motioned for us to follow him down the hall.

- -

_I am a reasonable person. I do not lose my cool no matter the situation._

Yeah, maybe if I repeated that enough times to myself, I'd believe it. Of course, I wanted to freak out right now. Badly. I was facing a six foot by ten foot room. That's 60 square feet. It was all the room we had to sleep.

Behind me, I heard Urahara fanning himself. We all stared at the room.

"WHAT THE HECK?!!" she exploded. I should've known Sora was going the first one to say something. She stomped over to Urahara to get in his face.

"This is where we're supposed to sleep? It's just barely bigger than the size of my bathroom!" she screamed up at him. Urahara shrugged.

"Well, we don't have that many rooms, and I really don't know you all, so…" he trailed off. I looked around. We were all still wet, and the random guy was still unconscious. I glared at him. It was, technically, partially his fault that we were all going to be shinigami. Urahara was right. The random guy (AKA Sakimiya-kun) didn't exactly make a good impression. Wait a sec…Sakimiya?

"Hey," I interrupted Sora in the middle of her rant. "Isn't there company named Sakimiya? Sakimiya Co., that's it. They made my game system."

Sora shrugged, I didn't expect her to remember such a small detail anyways.

"I told you, they're famous. Infamous in all _three_ worlds in fact, Takeshi-san." Urahara informed me airily. I didn't get to question him any further, due to the fact that Sora shoved me out of the way to scream at Urahara about the room. I sighed. Most guys at my school would kill to hang out with girls. If only they knew the truth.

Crazy, violent, cynical teenage girls don't even top the list of my problems. Let's see here. Takeshi's problems. Yeah, there's a never-ending story. You know that joke about how someone farted and then their house blew up? Yeah, well guess what? When I was seven, I threw a temper tantrum, and my house got torn apart by a sudden earthquake that split it right in two. _Problemo numero uno_: I make earthquakes. If that's not a crisis, I'm a squirrel. Then, a few weeks after the earthquake, my mother's tulips started _talking_ to me. They still do, along with most large plants. _Problemo numero dos_: I talk to plants, and vice versa. And if that just wasn't enough, I started seeing the dead. Yep, seeing ghosts. I see ghosts. And it's isn't like in manga or anything, where people who see ghosts are heroes and send them to a better place. No, these ghosts usually don't want to go anywhere, and even if they did, I have no clue how to do it. So, _problemo numero tres_: I see ghosts. My parents must be so proud.

Like I said before, girls might not be my biggest catastrophe, but they come pretty dang close! The opposite gender is a total mystery to me. They're all so different, you don't know what to say or do to make them happy or impress them. Like this one time, I heard someone say that if you want girls to be nice to you, you should be nice to them, and treat them delicately.

So I tried it out on Ayumi first, since she seemed the most normal. I picked up her books when she dropped them and opened the door for her. Plus, I said her hair looked nice. (Although, after that Sen gave me a weird look and asked me if I was sick or something. I hope she was joking.) Ayumi didn't really mind, and she thanked me, so I thought it'd be okay to do it to other girls too. Huge mistake. The next day, I told Kanae that she shouldn't carry so many heavy books at one time because she was a girl, and she gave me the cold shoulder for weeks. It was like living in a freezer. Maybe I hit a nerve?

Anyways, I was having an out of body experience. This had to be one of several firsts. I was going to have to sleep in a tiny room with no heating crammed in with my friends of both genders. Can anyone say _awkward_?

Of course, now, according to Urahara, we were going to have a week to decide whether or not we wanted to a) lose our memories, b) die, or c) become shinigami. The female cat-like shinigami had explained kidou, or demon magic, and footwork. During her lecture, I also noticed that they all had some sort of sword, (except for the man in the striped hat…maybe it was in his cane?) but they weren't nearly as large as the one that was owned by the man with bright orange hair. I prayed that if I did become a shinigami, my sword wouldn't be half as huge as his. I couldn't imagine how much force it would take to swing it around.

Force times mass equaled acceleration, so if a sword had a mass of say 25 kilos and the acceleration was about 100 meters per second squared…oh but how fast would you have to swing a sword? I couldn't think. I silently groaned and clutched at my throbbing headache. Damn, it really hurt. I stared at my hands.

How scary…when the monster/hollow had appeared, I'd felt like doing the same thing as Ayu. My first reaction hadn't been to run away, or to fell scared for myself. I had wanted to bring the thing down. It seemed natural, and I had taken a few steps forward at the time, although it seemed kind of stupid now. Of course, Ayu hadn't needed any help. TV tells us so many lies, the greatest of them being that most girls are weak. I wish that were true.

--

[AN] Hope ya like it! I (White-Rabbit914) plan to recontinue my old fic, "Rain and Its Mishaps" so look forward to that! I couldn't get Meggy to add anything on this chapter…but she wrote most of it, and I edited it. The next chapter should be me writing it with her edits :D Please look forward to more of this story! -Millie


	5. An Interrogation Game

Doubt & Trust Chapter 5

Authors Note: Ah, here's to another chapter! The gang finally gets to know one of the shinigami behind their new powers, but even after he explains what happened, something feels out of place…

P.S Millie here! The little thing you read above is by Megan (trying to add some suspense, eh Meg? xDD) and the following is her writing with my editing. Enjoy! -Camilla

Chapter Five: An Interrogation Game 

- -

I leaned back, closing my eyes. I felt incredibly hyper, kind of like the time Takeshi had dared me to down three cups of coffee with sugar in them. Don't say anymore. Still, there was something different about this new energy. I tried to sleep, but ended up just listening to everyone talk and bicker.

Then BAM! I felt something hit the floor an inch away from my face. Obviously, I exclaimed and looked around wildly, only to see Sen giggling madly. What was it with girls and giggles? I would say something and they'd all start laughing. I couldn't complain, though. It felt kind of natural now, seeing as the process of annoying me had been going on for a long time now.

I huffed, and decided to lie with my eyes open. It felt weird with the black robes I had on; Urahara hadn't given us anything to wear, although we were all soaking wet. Sen flopped down next to me.

"Whoa! Rai, your hair's almost flat. That's like the sign of the apocalypse!" she grinned and pointed at said hair. I was kind of grumpy about that. My hair and my height were a few sensitive points with me.

"I'm surprised you even know what 'apocalypse' means." I muttered. Sen made an annoyed sound. I grinned, pleased with myself.

"Well, you're not even five feet!"

"I am too! Not my fault you're a growth monster at six feet tall!"

"Five six is perfectly fine! You haven't hit your growth spurt yet, and even Takeshi's grown like three inches!"

"Giant!"

"Potato!" Ayu popped into the argument. I stared at her. Was she implying something?

"Potato?" I twitched. A potato. Whatever happened to shorty? Sen grinned and ruffled my hair. Not that it looked any different. Ayu nodded then giggled some more. I shook my head. I would never understand females. I huddled next to Takeshi.

"I'm a little intimidated." I muttered to my only fellow male comrade in the never ending 'war' with females. He sighed.

"Well, I dunno about you, but I'm more than a little cold." Takeshi pointed to his sopping hair. He shook his head like a dog, spraying rainwater everywhere. "But I get what you mean. I wish Kanae were here to keep them in line."

I nodded. Kanae could be sardonic, but she tended to drag Sen and Sora away from annoying me. Suddenly, I heard a groan.

"Ouch, killer headache. Hey, bitch, you didn't need to whip my butt so hard yesterday! Do you even know what the word 'mercy' means?" The boy in the corner sat up, wincing, and then freezing as he took in his surroundings. I suspected he was talking about Kanae because she was the only one who was called a bitch most the time. And the fact that she whipped butt pretty hard (I would know sense she whips mine every so often when she gets pissed…) "Never mind, I don't want the definition, pronunciation, language of origin, and an example sentence being chucked at me. I get enough of that with our lessons."

Silence ensued. I guess he didn't know that Kanae wasn't with us currently.

He glanced at each of us warily, his eyes darting around the room. In a swift movement, he flipped backwards with surprising agility. He raised one of his arms in defense, with the other one on the sword at his hip. Then, shifting into a clear stance, his eyes daring us to attack, he moved towards the wall.

All of that happened in less than a second.

Ayu raised her hands in a peaceful gesture.

"Hey, hey, calm down. Um… I'm Ayumi; that's Rai and Takeshi; those two over there are Sen and Sora." She pointed us out but the boy still didn't relax.

"What's your name?" She continued, trying to make him calm down

He seemed to debate with himself for a moment.

"Minami." He pronounced the words warily. Just then, Urahara flung open the door.

"Good evening , everyone! Ah, Sakimiya-san, I see you've woken up. I'm afraid you've got quite a few injuries. I'll talk to Tessai about your new level of reiatsu; he'll be able to figure out a training method for you. Join me in the kitchen, will you? You'll be able to chat with these people later." Urahara waved. The guy named Minami slumped, and suddenly he looked incredibly tired, as though some weight he hadn't had to lift in a long time had fallen back on his shoulders. Urahara pulled his hat down, and steered him out.

We all stared at each other, not quite knowing how to end the awkward moment.

--

I strode through the room. Shoulders thrust back with my chin lifted high, long strides, hand on sword; this was how I had been trained to walk. I hated falling back into the role of Sakimiya Minami, the dutifully talented son. It made me feel dead, because none of it was true. I was the biggest screw-up ever, I was loud mouthed, and I sucked at the finesse required for the politics of the household, much less the real deal. I could act though; this man was no different than any other man.

I waited for him to kneel before I did, and then I did it fluidly. It was the results of learning the tea ceremony. This was the man who was keeping me, I had to thank him. I pulled the humble, well-bred fake smile onto my face and bowed.

"Thank you for keeping me here. What would be the correct way for me to address you?" _Do not look up. Any sort of benefactor to you should be treated like a living god. You never know when you may need their aid, and then they will willingly rush to help you._

The man made a slight sigh.

"'Yes, that is your _boite_, you genuine daughter of Paris!'" he yawned, and then peered at me lazily. "It's quoted from Jane Eyre, rather apt in your case. That is to say, it doesn't apply to you at all."

I was obviously confused and I tried not to make it too obvious on my face.

"I am afraid I do not comprehend what you mean to say-"

"Ah, well, then, forget it. I separated you from the group to ask you a question, not to judge you. Now do you comprehend me, Sakimiya-san?" he seemed to add an undercurrent to the words.

I was still confused.

"No, but how should I address you?" I stalled. He sighed.

"I can see you are either unfamiliar or very bad at any form of politics. I assume it is the latter, considering where you come from and the unique education you have, no doubt, had. I will put it in layman's terms. I am interrogating you, and I will not allow you to leave until I have my answers." He might have raised an eyebrow, but I couldn't see his eyes. Oh, shit. I had always failed in my lessons for resisting interrogation. Torture I could do, but mental tricks screwed me up.

"Now then, I will ask you: what assignment _have your parents given you_?" he sipped at his tea. I scrambled for an answer; I loathed listening to the people referred to as my parents.

"I came here to get experience with battling real Hollows and I hoped that you might take me on as a student, Urahara-sama." There. It was a half-truth, technically, the Sakimiya's had sent me here to do that. Urahara sighed.

"I had hoped to do this cleanly, but I assume it was a false hope. Now then, _Sakimiya-san, _we both know that this is only the public assignment. Why don't you tell me about your true assignment, or the other one?" he leaned a little towards me. I was stuck. That assignment was confidential, but this guy was sharp. I couldn't tell anyone, because that would be defying their orders. I decided to play dumb while I made up an assignment that would seem to be a pro for the Sakimiya's.

"I have no other assignment. That is all." _Think. Lie, make up a lie! _I thought frantically to myself, buthe snorted.

"I have no doubt that is exactly what your parents told you to tell everyone. You certainly are good at playing the snake. Staying with the Sakimiya's gets you into all the inner circles and you get an excellent training along with an education." He smiled faintly, swirling his cup. I felt heat creep up my neck. "Befriending your adopted sister shows you precisely how to handle your parents by staying under her protection, although your parents already favor you. I have no doubt you are an excellent heir to the throne."

"I beg you to take back your comments; they are untrue." I hated this guy. How dare he? He didn't know anything about me.

"Oh, but I'm afraid they are _true_. See how you obey your parents with the precision of a point of a needle, look at how easily you betrayed your adopted sister." He murmured. I felt cold.

"Betrayed?" I asked stiffly. What was going on?

"Oh, yes. She's dead, or very close to it. You think your parents would let you leave unattended? There's a tracker implanted in your soul right now, in your zanpakuto. You saw her in that clearing, you realized that when you woke up, didn't you? Well, you led your parents straight to her."

I couldn't believe it. I had betrayed her. I hadn't known what I would have done when I met her, but I knew now that I could never wipe her memories. I sank to the floor.

"What did you intend? You were going to do it anyways, weren't you?" I heard the voice vaguely.

"No. I can't. I couldn't have. I would've told her, and then we could have done something, instead of me wiping her memories. I don't even know if I would have won. I mean, maybe she would've beaten me. I don't know. I don't…" I babbled. He sighed.

"Oh, dear, seems as though I played my part too convincingly. Your adopted sister is not dead. In fact, she's currently out there." Urahara pointed out the window loftily. My head jerked up.

"You told me she was dying!" I yelled angrily while searching in his eyes of any sign of a lie. He nodded, his eyes sharp and calculating, but I knew that he was one that I could trust. Call it a gut feeling? Sure, I hated him, but keep your friends close and your enemies closer right? He might as well be my ally.

"Of course. Mental torture. I started by pricking at your nerves, then I accused you of everything you feel insecure about. You want to learn from me? Lesson number one: when you are being interrogated, never believe anything your questioner says, does, or insinuates." He leaned back a little, seemingly comfortable with the stifling conversation. "Take it in, and cross reference it with anything your interrogator asks you, or what he implies. You certainly are gullible. I have to say, it was incredibly easy; so simple that I didn't even need to start the interrogation process. It will be your weakness if you don't learn to control your emotions."

I couldn't find anything left in me to be angry. This guy honestly intimidated me a little. I was sure that he would have been merciless if I had proven a challenge to interrogate. The more frustrated a questioner got, the more brutal his tactics would become. I knew this firsthand, having been submitted to it myself and watching it in action.

Now I wasn't sure what to say. Urahara had cracked my façade without even trying, and that really got under my skin.

"So then, you haven't asked me something else." He inclined his head. I decided to pretend that he hadn't just humiliated and interrogated me.

"What would that be, Urahara-sama?" I cringed at the suffix. He didn't miss it. Grinning hugely, as though he knew exactly which swear words I was using to describe him in my head right then, he fanned himself.

"You haven't asked me about the fact that your sister is currently in the deluge out there." He scratched his head.

Oh, damn.

--

I was deep in thought. I couldn't figure something out. Something that Sakimiya-san had said bothered me. I just didn't know what. Well, I couldn't do anything right now, so I decided to ignore it. But…still it nagged me…

"_Hey, bitch, you didn't need to whip my butt so hard yesterday!"_

What had he meant? I had no clue whatsoever (obviously he was angry about someone), but it sounded like he had thought he was somewhere else, and from the look on his face when he found out that he wasn't there, I could guess that he had been happy there. Apart from that, not much really struck me. Sakimiya-san was probably really, really rich. If his parents owned the huge Sakimiya Co, he would probably be kind of arrogant, since he'd probably been waited on a lot. I could try to be nice to him though. At that moment, Urahara opened the door again.

"All right, everyone, Sakimiya-kun and I have finished discussing and now you can have him back." He cheerfully snapped his fan open. "If you'd like, I will discuss your future options with all of you. If you prefer, that is."

We all looked at each other and shrugged. What the heck? We'd had parent teacher conferences before, it couldn't be that bad. He took our silent reply as a yes.

Urahara seated himself on a cushion and pointed to me.

"You. What do you think about this? Which way will you go?" he abruptly took a more serious stance. I felt like I was in a spotlight.

"Uh…well…you gave us three options. We could be shinigami, we could die, or we could lose our memories of each other. I don't want to lose my memories. And I don't want to die." I reasoned. "I guess the only path would be shinigami, it's the easiest for me as far as I can tell." And it was true; becoming a shinigami didn't seem like a bad trade in comparison. It seemed like this was the "wrong" answer though, because Urahara suddenly seemed to become ten times more serious.

"I'm not sure that you know what you're saying. For someone as young as you, it probably does seem like that, but you don't seem to realize how many shinigami regret the day they took the sword. You're sacrificing something that someone else would give anything for. It might be the only acceptable path for you, but are you sure it will still be acceptable in ten years? Fifteen? Becoming a shinigami isn't something that you can get out of once you agree." He spoke dispassionately, as though he had seen it happen before. Maybe he had.

I was a little ticked. Okay, so what? I was supposed to die? Or leave behind everyone? Dying was out of the question. I still hadn't done enough. I hadn't even graduated junior high. Abandon my friends? Not a chance in ahem, _heck_. I had been disappointed by too many people to let go of the ones that loved me. Seeing ghosts wasn't a plus on the making friends' side of things. Looking around the room, I saw that everyone else had planned on answering the same as I had just.

Well, everyone except for Sakimiya-kun. He looked at Urahara differently than everyone else did. Sakimiya-san was looking down at the ground, and he played with the hem of his robe. He seemed to be debating with himself.

Suddenly I realized something.

"Hey, why are you so glum? You're the reason that we're stuck in this mess in the first place!" Oh well. There goes trying to be nice to the kid.

--

Hollows. They were coming, drawn by the fresh power like sharks to blood. I entertained no thoughts of running; I was tired of doing that. I could feel them shifting from Las Noches to the human world. Paranoia had paid of after all; I had a katana with me and I had suffered hours of training to adapt to my larger spiritual power in order to be able to use kidou I was in need of it. Despite of my aversion towards running, I had no choice for the time being; engaging in close quarters would be advantageous for me, but it would increase the chance of the loss of human life. The local shinigami would be of no use against anything above the normal hollows, and I thought I could feel an arrancar coming. The first one materialized in the clearing that I was now in. I drew my sword.

However long the night, the dawn will break.

--

Author's note: Hey! To all the readers still with us (I'm sure I can count the number with my thumbs, but still!) let us know! Foreshadow what happens next, cuz this is going to be one heck of a long story!

P.S That was Megan again. Wasn't that an awesome chapter? FWI the last segment of the chapter was sort of hazy so you can't really tell whose POV it was from. Ah well, epicness makes up for it, eh? Sorry it took so long to edit, but as you all probably know by now, I am extremely lazy. Heck, we've even started chapter six and seven! Ah well, Peace out everybody and enjoy 2009 like heck! -Millie


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